***

Tam drove to the farm, laughing to himself at the way Casen finished his burger and continued to chat aimlessly and happily to Badger. He was such a soft touch, even with dogs.

“Leander doesn't keep very well, so I usually stop by when I'm in the area. Looks like I'm a bit late; it seems Badger broke the fence down,” Tam explained, as they pulled into the farm and found the large mesh fence simply knocked over. The posts were sticking out of the mud and it was clear they hadn't been put down deep enough.

“Can you fix it?” Casen wondered, absently brushing his fingers over the underside of Badger's muzzle as he talked.

Tam smiled at that. “Sure. You can keep Leander entertained,” he decided, opening the driver’s door. Tam stepped out onto the mud track and let Badger go on ahead. He ran straight into the house, through the open back door and left them behind. He was about to go searching for Leander, when he saw him appearing from around the side of the house. He had a basket in his hands and Tam realised he'd been out checking on the chickens.

“Leander…hey. We found Badger in the village,” he explained, as he crossed to meet the old man.

“Thank you for bringing him home.” Leander beamed, as Tam hugged him in greeting.

The squelch of mud made him look back, to see Casen making his way over, not even bothered that his new trainers were now covered in mud. “No problem. He's taken a shine to Casen,” he confessed, wrapping his arm around his waist as he stopped at his side.

“Oh, nice to meet you.” Leander gave Tam a significant look and held his hand out for Casen to shake.

“And you.” Casen returned the compliment and the hand shake.

Leander cleared his throat and looked between them with a smile.

Tam knew where this was going. They didn't often talk about their personal lives, as theirs was more of a friendly-neighbour-in-passing kind of relationship. Leander knew he had dated guys before, but there was no real talk of relationships when they hung out; it ended up being more 'let me fix this for you' and 'thanks for stopping by'.

“Are you…?” Leander wondered, continuing to stare in expectation of an explanation.

“Casen is my husband,” Tam admitted, with a smile.

Casen beamed, as he always did when he called him his husband. As if he still couldn't quite believe it was true.

“Well, Badger has always had good taste. So you've made a good choice,” Leander claimed, making them laugh.

Tam didn't need anyone telling him that. Being with Casen was like nothing else. It was the best thing he'd ever done in his whole life. “Do you need me to reinforce his fence? Casen and I were heading home anyway, so we've got plenty of time.” He made the offer and hoped that Leander would take him up on it. He didn't want Badger getting hurt or escaping again, or worse, Leander attempting to fix the fence and hurting himself.

“That would be helpful, thank you.”

“No problem.” Tam took his jacket off and handed it to Casen along with the truck keys and asked him to put them in the truck while he got to work.

They both knew that Casen wouldn't be happy sitting on the side-lines, but he wanted to get the worst of the heavy lifting done, before he insisted on helping. As amazing, beautiful and smart as Casen was, they had one stark truth staring them in the face; Tam was stronger.

Leander would go back inside with his chicken eggs and take care of everything he had been doing before they arrived. And he had no doubts that Badger would be back soon, to check on their progress.

“Tam.”

He turned, before he could get started, smiling at his husband who stood beside him looking unusually shy. “What is it, baby?” he asked, reaching out to catch a wayward strand of hair that had swept over his forehead.

Casen smiled and caught his hand before he could remove it, holding it to his cheek and nudging into the contact. “I know you're worried about me. But I'm not lonely,” he promised, in a quiet voice. He took a final step forward, bringing them chest to chest. “I'm happy, Tam. I don't mind that you work from dawn until dusk, except for the fact that you're exhausted. I don't need you to babysit me, just because people think I'm delicate,” he explained.

“You know what Cormag told me, then?” he guessed, wondering if he was in trouble.

His husband nodded and sighed. “I've been quiet because of this trip to the cabin. I know what's going to happen and it worries me. But that's okay, because it might not actually happen. We might get there and everything will be fine. We won't know until we're there,” he said, full of determination to see it through. “That doesn't mean you have to be with me every second of the day, just to make sure I'm not going to fall apart. I won't. I'm not even close to breaking down or crumbling.”

Tam brushed his thumb over Casen's smiling lips, unable to do anything but appreciate this beautiful man before him, who was so much stronger than everyone gave him credit for. Even him. And he knew better.

“I love having all this extra time with you,” Casen continued, gazing up at him with all the love they'd shared so far. “I love seeing how happy it makes you, how much stronger you are and that you're not working yourself into an early grave anymore. I don't regret that. But I do regret that Cormag made you worry about me. And that you didn't just talk to me about it,” he admitted, with a hint of warning.

“I figured if you were unhappy with...us...then you wouldn't tell me, even if I asked you,” Tam reasoned, since he knew his husband well by now. There was no way in hell that Casen would deliberately or accidentally come between Tam and the farm. He would hate the very thought.

“I suppose,” he agreed, without shame. “Just promise me that you won't let other people dictate how we are together? I need to know that we're walking into this cabin situation as a team.”

Tam realised, in that moment, just how much the whole trip to the cabin was freaking him out. He nodded his agreement, then kissed Casen, because he could and because he wanted to. It wouldn't help, but they could talk about this more when they got home. When they had the privacy to really figure out their battle plan, if things did go south.